Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture

In her book on the MMO gaming world, Taylor brings an ethnographic approach to the game Everquest. Through interviews and personal experience, she gives an insight into the gaming world that portrays it for the rich, complex, social world that it is. A gamer herself, Taylor does an excellent job shining new light on the "frowned upon" gaming world. She also goes beyond the gaming world to show how things are connected through the internet and "in real life" to things within the game. As far as this being too "basic" in covering the genre - this wasn't aimed to be a book only for advanced gamers. For those of the academic world, who have no experience whatsoever with games, the chapters provide sufficient information about the games to allow understanding. The summary/analysis is as comprehensive as it is rich. There are parts that she could have gone further and I do hope she does write a second book (although she does have articles on this topic as well). All in all, this is an absolutely fantastic book for academics (or just interested people) who want an ethnographic approach to the gaming world that treats it not as a deviant, subersive "alternate" reality. Gamers and academics alike can appreciate it. Think Jenkins' Textual Poachers (written about the fan world) for gamers. I sincerely hope this is the tip of the iceberg for this serious academic research into the community, social aspects of MMOs.

TL Taylor is a brilliant woman, and the thoughtfulness and scientific rigor of her research shine through in this book.

For those who wonder what on earth online gaming is about, Taylor furnishes an education. He covers the history of how it sprang from the MUDs [Multi User Dungeons] and MOOs [MUDs with object orientation] of the 80s. When those were of necessity primarily text based. Then, in the 90s, with the advent of the Web and faster bandwidth and more powerful personal computers, multiuser online games emerged. Notably EverQuest, which is well documented here. Other games are also mentioned. Taylor himself took part as a player in one of these. Partly of his own recreational interest. But also as background research for this book. He shows that these games became virtual worlds. Where players could build up their personas and environments. Even to the extent of trading these assets in the real world. Some players took these on as "jobs", building up characters that they would subsequently sell on eBay. Amazing indeed. Important issues are aired. Like what rights, if any, do players have to sell these personas? Much of the value in a persona arises out of the creativity of its owner. Much more than just the passive watching of a film. Or even of playing a twitch game like Quake, which is not really about character development. The book reaches no definitive conclusion. Which is a good assessment of how things stand now, anyways.